6. Italy.

Naples (Solfatara Volcano - Pozzuoli). Rome, Oste.

11th - 18th July.

Disembarking took a little longer than expected, three ferries docked at the same time and customs seemed particularly thorough but thankfully not with us and waved us through.

The big decision was where to stay, there were three possible sites not too far from Naples, one north at a Volcano (yeah righ!) and two south in Pompei. We choose based purely on the reviews and the Volcano site came out better, I have to say we were bloody amazed at this location, it really was in the volcano and it also had a lovely pool which the website didn't mention, BONUS!!

Pool in the crater.

We had some lovely pasta in the campsite cafe, this was a treat it really does taste better in Italy, followed by a helping of Gelato, yum yum! Then to test the pool, pool rules amaze me, its getting more and more common to not be allowed to have fun, no diving, no balls, no lilos and of course the compulsory shower and foot bath before entering, all very amusing. Despite all of that the pool was lovely, it's quiet and very enjoyable, the boys used their dive sticks for the whole time, they did try jumping in (technically not the same as diving) but this also was also not allowed - boring!!!

Smelly Sauna.

Tea time was a big helping of Rice Krispies which went down very well (can't get them in BG) and our evening strole took us to the crater, the volcano was kind of like our garden, we could smell the sulphur from the volcano pretty much all day. Investigating the site was quite a treat, we had a good look around at the bubbling mud pit, the sunshine coloured fumaroles and the natural sauna.

Fumarole.

Genius!!

Ryan and I quite liked the smell and stood breathing in the sulphuric steam as if it was freshly baked bread but Neil and poor Matty were not such fans and Matty came up with a solution of his own...   

Cafe and Crater.

I love Mother Earth and really was in my element here surrounded with such power and beauty.

Solfatara Volcano .

Lovely day finished off with a cool one :)

The cool one!

The caravan has seen its fair share of illness (namely vomiting) every time it's been out and this trip was no exception. Picture this! Ryan was sick in his bed, the bottom bunk, we didn't realise but he had been puking for some time while sleeping and his bed and beloved Elephant Jennie was covered, we got him out and set him up with a bowl on our bed while we cleaned up. Neil was cleaning Ryans bed then Matty started and didn't only get it all over his bed but over the side (top bunk) and all over Neil too, Matty was too poorly to be laughing just now but Ryan and I were tittering a little, it also went in the bag of their clothes at the side of the bed. With the clean up complete a couple of hours pass and the pukking seemed to be over (fingers crossed) they were sleeping, Neil made himself as comfortable as possible on the remade bottom bunk and I squeezed in between them on our bed hoping for the best, overall not a good night for any of us. An early get up for me with a body and head that felt like if had been batted around a baseball diamond, it was time for the second stage of the clean up: washing what had been thrown out in the dark which was now covered with a moving sea of ants!! The camp thankfully was very well equipped so I took Jennie and the bedding to the car wash area that had a hose and a grid on the road (no picking sick from the plug hole this time), it was not long before everything was washed off and in the washing machine. Amazingly the boys were actually fine in the morning. In our minds there were only really two things that could have caused this, either the Sulphur from the Volcano (doubtful) or the UHT milk that had been in the fridge that was turned off for roughly 24 hours while on the ferry, lets just say lesson learned and from that day the fridge would be emptied if turned off for more than an hour or so...

Expensive but good Calazone.

Pompei was to be our day out at this stop, less than an hour and we were there. It was very busy and not well signed for parking, we chose a car park that offered free parking if we had lunch there so this is what we did, however the catch was that the order had to be over 40 Euro, for four of us this was easy so no problem, the catch was the 15% service charge that was clear on the bill but not so clear anywhere else in the restaurant, this meant the meal was the most expensive so far at almost 70 Euro AND I didn't actually order I was sharing Ryans. Another lesson learned, Pompei was a typical over priced tourist trap and the two campsites that we ruled out were smack bang in the middle, good move!!

Pompei

The ancient city was really quite remarkable, endless streets and columns and some extremely well preserved details. It was very very hot and there were lots of very sun burned people wondering the dusty unshaded streets, they reminded me a little of Raspberry Ripple ice cream...

Petrified...

Mt. Vesuvius looming.

Hard to believe so many lives were lost here. 

Courtyard.

Our visit overall was half a day, enough to be honest in that heat and the last area we wanted to look at was the amphitheater which was closed for an Elton John concert that evening - shame!




















We didn't get to see Naples, mainly because there is only so much sightseeing a 6 and 9 year old can take and Pompei was enough for them understandably which I now regret slightly especially as I kept getting words from Dean Martin song pop into my head. I shall return :)

The camp site was outside the small town of Pozzuli which has a very well preserved amphitheater, not that we had chance to see it close up but the walls as you drive by were pretty spectacular, reportedly this site is as impressive as the Coliseum only cheaper and quieter but we couldn't cram it in.

A little reading before moving on.

Solfatara Campsite and Volcano, thank you!!

Rome next, campsite not far from the city by the coast but there were quite a few notices up about not leaving valuables unattended and there were 'ladies waiting for the bus' or 'selling oranges' (prostitutes to most of us but I don't want to explain that to the boys just yet) just along from the site entrance and for the first time we felt a little vulnerable despite the deep wooded and fenced perimeter looking pretty secure.

A bit of train graffiti.  

The transport tickets for Neil and I were 7.50 euro each for 24 hours of travel on any form of public transport which we felt was a total bargain plus the kids were free. The trains, buses and Metro were so frequent that we hardly waited for anything. The brightly graffitied trains added a joyful splash of colour and life to otherwise drab and boring platforms, sure beats looking at old, dirty, rusty, dented carriages.

The place thats on everything!

First stop was the Coliseum and Mattys face lit up when he saw it and shouted 'wow Mommy I know this place, its on everything!!' The queue was huge and a tour guide said that we will be waiting longer to get in than we would once inside looking around so we decided to move on to Vatican City by bus, it was such an enjoyable journey, around every corner there was something else jaw dropping to see. Vatican City was beautiful but the guards were in fancy dress, surely!!

Guards in fancy dress?!

Rome...

Rome...

 And more Rome.

Rome...

Roman street artists.

For tea we found a busy little back street restaurant and had more divine Pizza and Pasta, the final stop was the beautiful Trevi Fountain and some of the most delightful Gelato, it was late by now but bish, bash, bosh, the frequency of the public transport meant that we were in bed in no time at all. 

Fountana di Trevi.

All in all Rome was a treat, a great city, the boys were happy hopping on and off the buses and the metro and we were happy as this was dirt cheap, but something more than that, it felt good, it was relaxed, calm and peaceful, maybe even graceful...

In the morning I headed to the local town of Oste (which along the sea front reminded me very much of Weston-Super-Mare) to book our ferry to Spain. 

Lovely Oste.

A bit of crabbing...

The amazing team of volunteers life guards.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing on the beach and getting to know the life guards,  two totally gorgeous Labradors Karma and Leah and their owners, they were amazing young dogs and thankfully have not had to save anyone in real life but they sure looked capable to me, the most amazing thing about these life guards is that they are volunteers, how wonderful!!

Leah in action.

Good work Leah

More graffiti along the almost black sandy beach.

Our vessel to Barcelona.

The ferry was slightly larger and newer to say the least than what we had previously experienced which meant our expectations were higher and we were not disappointed, well not too disappointed  until we excitedly opened the curtains of our second outside cabin that this time had a view of the lifeboats - reassuring but not what I had been dreaming of. Any way. Good beds, check! Good bathroom, check! Aircon, yes! Good nights sleep, hopefully!!

Much nicer cabin.

The disappointing view.

Deck pool.

In the dark we found the pool. Yay!!! The pool was empty, uhhh!!! Gutting for the boys, but little did we know (I shall add that I jokingly suggested this) they filled it with sea water overnight and in the morning it was open and ready for action. Pool time is great for them to gain confidence in the water and Ryan managed to swim a lenght unaided in a pool in the middle of the sea - memorable place! And Matty is now what I would say, a swimmer!





NOTE: on an overnight crossing with a sun deck the people who do not pay for cabins sleep the whole day on the sun beds around the pool, you know who they are they snore, dribble and many are fully clothed.

It was a great experience overall but we were not very prepared (I could say we very rarely are) for a long day that passed slowly and should have added to the overnight bag at least a pack of playing cards, in our dreamy little world of idyllic sea crossings we thought we would be wondering around on the deck, enjoying the sea air, Dolphin spotting, romantic Titanic front of boat scene re enacting but it was way too windy for all of that and even if it wasn't those activities would hardly put a dent the 10 hours we till had to kill once we'd had breakfast.

Time to disembark and meet BARCELONA!!!!!

5. Montenegro.

Montenegro, Utejha.

July 7th - 10th

The border crossing took ages, worst so far... Sitting in the car in the baking sun with a family of beggars tapping us, not a pleasant experience, I will give to most but when they and you know you can't move on its not a good place to be. Glad to be across the border and on the road to the coast,  the GPS (google maps) said just over half hour, great we thought!! One hour later we were pretty much stuck on the 'higher' coast road which was very narrow and all of the roads taking us down were even narrower, stressful situation, anyway we took a break at a shop for an ice cream and asked a local if he thought we could get down a certain road and he said the he does it in his minibus, so we went for it and although it was single lane luckily it had a good run off on either side, we finally made it to the E851!!!

The up side is the crystal clear sea.

Looking forward to a cool off in the sea we arrived at Camp Oliva in Maslina Bay, Utejha which was just opposite the ram packed beach... towel to towel and brolly to brolly, until now we had space and freedom which had been lovely, not complaining though it is very beautiful...

Very very old olive tree.

We drove on to the site and despite emailing to book it was pretty much the same as the beach and just about managed to get squeezed in but didn't have room to get the sun canopy up, luckily we were surrounded by the most beautiful olive trees I have ever seen which offered some welcome shade.

Making good use of the stones :)

An essential cool one...

With the essentials done in the caravan; power and beds, we went off to the beach. The beach was stones so not at all comfortable but the sea was just what we needed, crystal clear and extremely refreshing closely followed by a beer, pizza and bed, an early night was in order for us.

The next day we decided to take a look around Bar and book our ferry to Italy, other than some nice restaurants along the harbour not much to see here so we headed for the old town of Bar, we parked and despite being parked in a free parking space a guy was insisting we paid and in the end we gave him a Euro. 

Coffee and homemade biscuits.

Bar old town.

Half way up the hill.

The old town of Bar.

The old towns narrow cobbled streets were lined with shops and cafes, it was very traditional and a lovely place to relax and look around. We sat and had a Turkish coffee that came with some totally divine homemade cookies, after a second helping we set of for the top of the hill to the castle, it was huge and very well preserved so we were excitedly spurred on, feeling a little like the Famous Four we looked at as much as we could, investigating as many towers, nooks and crannies and dungeons as we possibly could, the boys were bored first I shall add.

Unusual door?!

Famous Four!!

Looking around.

Pretty in Pink :)

The street below.

Lemonade place.

On the way back to the car we had a zesty chilled homemade lemonade and thought what a lovely time we were having despite what we felt was not a relaxing start but low and behold when we got back to the car a different guy was telling us that we had to pay, the area was a free parking zone (we had checked in the tourist info office) and we felt a little disappointed as these people were intimidating and very persistent, Neil at this point has had quite enough and was now telling other tourists it was a free parking zone and not to pay...




We set off back to the campsite and within a few minutes Matty said his tablet had gone from the back of the car, to cut a long story short it had and it seemed likely that the guys asking for parking money opened the window and stole it, Matty was gutted!! We decided to do the right thing and report the theft to the police and also let them know about the tricksters at the parking area, the Police in Montenegro are similar to the Police in Bulgaria, chocolate tea pot springs to mind, they were all sat around smoking and smirking at us and told us to go back in an hour - it was already quite late and to be honest thought it would be fruitless so didn't bother, unfortunately we were feeling pretty low at this point and went to bed looking forward to getting the ferry in two days time.

The next morning we felt a bit better, not much though, for some reason we were not 'feeling' Montenegro, the camp site was more than 60% occupied by permanent camping pitches, when this happens people who live in them can sometimes become a little territorial (naturally) and it kind of feels like you have pitched in someones garden without invitation, here their feelings were almost palpable.

Huge cruise ship in Kotor Bay.

City wall.

We had wanted to drive further north to the Bay of Kotor to camp but felt it was just too long of a journey to then have to back track for the ferry so we decide just to go for the day,  it was a long drive but well worth it, the harbor had the biggest cruise ship docked that I had ever seen and few luxury if not super yachts.






The old town is a UNESCO world heritage site and its clear why the Lonely Planet had awarded it the title of No 1 city 2016, the old town wall snaked to the top of the mountain, the medieval narrow streets were full of shops, eataries, museums, churches and impressive architecture, totally loved it!! We had lunch and walked along the edge of the waterfront had a swim, a nap :) and an ice cream in the mountain encircled Ria (submerged river bed) that is Kotor bay - dreamy!! 

More cool and crystal clear water.

Bay of Kotor

Time to head back but on the way back to the car I realised I had lost the camera... OMG what else can happen, my heart sank, I had now lost all of my photos, after an hour of retracing my steps I found it, a lovely young Serbian man running boat trips picked it up and put it to one side, filled with gratitude we left the spectacular Bay of Kotor.

Outside the city walls.

Lovely benches.

Kotor humor :)

Departure day! We could board the ferry from 8pm in which case our plan was to swim and leisurely pack up for 5pm, however at 3pm the site owners asked us when we were leaving and told us we were causing them a problem as we should have left at 12, this was disappointing as they had not objected when we told them we would leave in the afternoon when we paid our bill in the morning. Should have know it was all going too well, at this point there was not a lot we could do but get cracking and leave, we arrived in Bar early enough to relax and eat, the WiFi at the restaurant was great so the boys called their friends, it was lovely to see their faces when they heard the familiar voices, I shed a tear or two at this point...

Goodnight Montenegro!!

Dockside.

The plan was to get on the ferry as early as possible, get a shower in the cabin and watch the final, Portugal and France. We were instructed to park at the dock side and it was at this point panic set in with Neil as it was clear that he had to reverse the car and caravan in, the boys and I boarded and headed for the cabin. 

Not the cabin we had hoped for.

It was a couple of hours before Neil joined us and the match was already on. The boat was very dated and the dream of us cooling off in our air conditioned cabin was soon shattered, it was stuffy and hot, and the bathroom floor was soaked which was worrying as none of us at this point had showered and the WC pan was loose... To top it all the outside cabin we paid extra for had a window so old and dirty we could not see out of it!!

The match was on and off due to the poor signal but we saw the goal and the final whistle, very good result!! The boys both have Portugal tops which I actually found in second hand shops in BG last year which at the time I thought was definitely a sign that we were on the right path.

On board entertainment.

Dont let the bed bugs bite...

Neil and I took the top bunks, usually the boys would like them but we were afraid they would fall off during the night, it wasnt the cool and restful night we needed and we woke up in Italy tired and hot.

Sporting the winners.

Good morning Napoli!!

Happy traveler :)